cowan



B. F. COWAN.

Coal Scuttle.

No. 61,054. Patented Jan. 8,1867.

N- PETERS. PHQTO-QTHDGRAPHER. WASHINGTON u c:

TO ALL WHOMTT MAY CONCERN:

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n. FL'OOWAN, or NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, J. 1); SHE'WELL,

AND JOHN SUMNER, OF THE SAME PLACE. Lcttcrs Patent No. 61,054, datedJanuary 8, 1867.

' GOAL SOUTTLE'.

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN F. COWAN, of the city and county and Stateof New York, have invented a new and improved Coal Scuttle; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to makeand use the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawing,forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side view ofa coal scuttle made according to my inventiozn'a portion of theside'being broken away to show the bottom.

Figure 2 is an inverted \lOW, showing'the bottom tight or closed.

Figure 3 is an inverted view, showing the bottom open.

The object of this invention is to produce a coal scuttle, or coal hod,as it is sometimes called, whose bottom, by a simple movement of a leveror handle, can be changed from a conditionin which it forms a completeunbroken surface, so as to hold coal, ashes, Cinders, or refuse matter,which may then he carried in the hodwith safety from place to place, tothe condition of a grate, through which the finer part of the contentsofthe hod can pass out, and which, furthermore, by reason-of the peculiarconstruction of the bottom, can be also used as a sifter, one portionthereof, the upper, being made movable on the other, so as alternatelyto open and close the bottom, the contents of the liod or scuttle beingmeanwhile agitated by the vibration of the movable portion with whichthey first come in contact. After the finer portions of such contentshave been sifted out by such agitation and alternate opening and closingof the bottom, the movable portion is left in such a position as to makethe bottom complete and whole again, so as to retain the other portionsof the contents, without the liability of littering the apartment orplace where the scuttle is kept. v

The letter A designates a scuttle to which my improvement has beenapplied. 13 is the usual supporting flange below the level of the bottomof the scuttle, the rim of which flange rests on the ground. The bottomof the scuttle is commonly made of a fixed and unbroken piece of metalor wood, and since it is then fixed in place and unmovable, it followsthat whatever matters are placed in the scuttle must be dischargedtherefrom through its top. It has been, however, proposed or attemptedto put a wire gauze diaphragm across the interior of a coal scuttle, ata suificient distance above its bottom to form an ash or refuse chamberbetween the two, the diaphragm being fixed, or else fitted toreciprocate, so as to allow the ashes above to fall upon the bottom ofthe scuttle. I disclaim these methods of making a coal scuttle. In myimprovement the bottom is composed of two slotted plates, 0 D, placedone upon the other at the usual place or level of thebottom of anordinary scuttle. The slots extend nearly to the edges of the plates,and are made for each plate parallel with each other; consequently thoseslots are the longest which are nearest the diameters of the plates, andthey decrease in length as they recedc therefrom. By stopping the slotsshort of the edges of the plates, I produce a continuous rim along theiredges, which in this example is of circular or ring form, because thelower part of the scuttle is made cylindrical, or nearly so. Theslots-in the plates may be of a different form or shape from that hereshown, provided that such form does not prevent or interfere with theproposed openingand closing of the bottom, as herein setforth. The lowerplate, I), is fixed by its rim to the interior of the scuttle, but theupper plate, which rests thereon, is not connected with the sides of thescuttle, although its edge comes as close as may be without binding orinterfering with its proper movements, as hereafter set forth. The slotsin the upper plate are so arranged that when brought-into parallel lineswith the slots of the under plate, they are directly over the bars ofthe under plate, such liars being greater in width than the slots of-theupper plate, so as to close them com. plotely; and, at the same time,the bars which'arc intermediate the slots of the upper plate, comedirectly over the slots of the lower plate, and close them completely,the bars of plate C being wider than the slots of plate D, so that theyoverlap the edges of the bars of the last-named plate. When in thiscondition, the two plates form a complete and unbroken bottom, whichwill not let anything pass through it,the upper plate, whiehis loose,being hell down close to the lower plate by the weight of the contentsof thescuttle. When, however, the upper plate is turned so that itsslots are no longer parallel with those of the plate below, the bars ofthe upper plate are made to extend obliquely across the bars and slotsbelow, thereby uncovering such portions of said slots as are not coveredover by the width of the upper bars. The two centre bars oftheup'perplate, are, in

this example, united at the middle of their length, so as to form a hub,with which the actuating lever E may be connected. This hub may extenddownward through the centre bar of the lower plate'to meet the lever,or, as in this example, the lever may be bent upward, and bepassedthrough the lower plate in order to become con nected with the upperplate. The lever E extends beneath the lower plate, in a horizontaldirection, through the flange B of the scuttle, a slot, F, being madetherein to allow the lever to be moved to and fro a distance ofone-quarter of a circle, more or less. The lever E may be placed abovethe upper plate if desired, and the mode of attaching the lever to themovable plate may be also varied in any way desired from that hereshown. From this construction it follows that when one moves the lever Ein the slot F, the upper plate, 0, willbe also moved over the plate D,whose slots or openings will be thereby opened or closed, as aboveexplained, the plates mutually opening and closing each others slots oropenings. With this improvement one can take up cinders and ashes from astove or grate in a house, and carry them out doors without producingany litter by dropping any part thereof, and there, by oscillating. thelever E, sift out the ashes as in a sifting apparatus, retaining theunburnt coal in the scuttle; When the sifting or separating operation iscompleted, the lever is turned so as to close the bottom, when the restof the contents of the scuttle can be taken back to the grate or stovein a. fit condition to be returned to the tire, without the customarychange from one vessel to another, as from a scuttle to a sifter, andback again from the sifter to the scuttle, and without dropping any partthereof through the bottom of the scuttle. It will be observed that theplate 0, which is the movable one, is in immediate contact with the massof the contents of the scuttle, and that its movements act withdirectness in agitating and separating the finer from the coarser parts.Any suitable form of openings may be adopted for the plates providedthey are such that the solid parts of the movable plate shall close theopen parts of the fixed plate, and vice versa. I do not wish to confinemyself to the precise details here shown, but desire to embrace anyequivalent means for accomplishing these results. i

O'laz'm. Making the bottoms of boal scuttles of plates having slots oropenings and solid parts intermediate, and so arranged that the slotsare opened and closed bythe oscillation of one of the plates,substantially as above described.

B. F. COWAN.

Witnesses:

WM. F. MONAMARA, ALEX. F. Ronnnrs.

